The Centers for Disease Control would begin keeping detailed, uniform data on traumatic brain injuries suffered by athletes, military veterans and others if legislation that Rep. Bill Pascrell unveiled Wednesday becomes law.

Pascrell, D-Paterson, has spent more than a decade trying to focus attention on brain injuries, and his efforts included pressuring scholastic and professional sports teams to set policies about athletes returning to the field after concussions.

It also included urging the military to do more to treat what Pascrell calls a “silent epidemic” among veterans whose brain injuries were not diagnosed after armor protected them from suffering more obvious injuries in explosions.

“It took us five years to convince them they were missing the boat,” Pascrell said at a news conference. He noted the first appropriation specifically for veterans’ brain injuries was not approved until 2007, even though by his estimates 20 percent of fighters serving in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered some level of injury.

An Army veteran from New Jersey, John Irwin, shared his story during a panel discussion on Capitol Hill after Pascrell’s news conference. Irwin, 33, of Toms River, said in an interview he was injured in an explosion in Iraq in 2003, but it was not diagnosed until his wife noticed afterward he was having trouble completing tasks. Irwin was starting to pursue treatment when he was redeployed and served another tour in Afghanistan.

“At the time, the military wasn’t really up on brain injuries,” Irwin said in an interview before the program. “They weren’t aware what had happened in relation to the blast.”

After his service, Irwin initially had trouble finding work because of his cognitive problems. He got help through a foundation program for veterans, and he eventually got a job with a contractor at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. He now works on the staff of Rep. Frank Pallone, D-Long Branch, providing outreach to other veterans.

“Things have gotten a lot better, but there is a long way to go,” Irwin said.

Advocates at the news conference applauded the new legislation, which calls for a statistically sound, scientifically credible and integrated system to track injuries and treatments.

“Data drives policy,” said Susan Connors of the Brain Injury Association of America. “If we want to find research that I hope will someday lead to a cure, we have got to have the data.”